The Freedom from Religion Foundation (FFRF) has been quite busy

FFRF combats ‘pervasive religious endorsement’ in Texas school district

A national state/church watchdog has lodged a formal complaint over "pervasive religious endorsement" by the Mt. Vernon Independent School District in Texas.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation contacted the district Oct. 31 on behalf of a local complainant. FFRF, based in Madison, Wis, has more than 21,500 members, including 900 in Texas. Numerous allegations of Establishment Clause violations include religious postings in several classrooms,,,

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"Public schools have a duty to ensure that 'subsidized teachers do not inculcate religion' or use their positions of authority to promote a particular religious viewpoint," FFRF Staff Attorney Sam Grover wrote Superintendent John Kaufman in the Oct. 31 letter. "When teachers place Latin crosses or bible quotes on classroom walls, they have unconstitutionally entangled the school with a religious message, specifically a Christian message."

FFRF protests many police chaplains nationwide, including in Orlando

The Freedom From Religion Foundation, a national state/church watchdog, sent a letter and open records request to the Orlando Police Department (Fla.) on Nov. 3, objecting to the department's chaplain program. The complaint is the latest in a series of objections over law enforcement chaplaincies the FFRF has lodged this year.
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Orlando chaplains, as is typical, are required to be ordained ministers with experience as pastors, who counsel employees, employees' families, and victims of crimes, and assist with death notifications and other police activities. Orlando's chaplain program does have one distinct feature – a car with an "Orlando Police Chaplain" graphic displayed across the side. FFRF's records request asks for documents relating to this car, as well as many other aspects of the chaplain program.
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Some chaplain programs have other troubling elements, like chaplains delivering prayers at department ceremonies, or training law enforcement officers on subjects outside their expertise such as ethics and stress management. Some chaplains have contact with juveniles. A chaplain was photographed at a session of the Police Department's "Police Explorers" program in Dunwoody, Ga., whose participants are ages 14-21. The job description for Rochester's Clergy Response Team says that clergy "may volunteer in high schools with School Resource Officers." And Millville's chaplains made headlines in August for actually picking up and detaining children who had violated curfew.
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Attorney Andrew Seidel, one of five FFRF staff attorneys, handled most of the chaplain complaints on behalf of FFRF. His letters explain that courts allow government-employed chaplains only as an accommodation where the government makes it difficult for people to seek out private ministries, as is the case with military service members or prisoners. Since there is no government-imposed religious burden on law enforcement officers or the public, the government does not need to provide chaplains for them.

FFRF reports electioneering churches to IRS

Prior to Tuesday's elections, FFRF passed onto the IRS nine complaints about churches improperly endorsing or opposing candidates for political office. FFRF is investigating further complaints that came to light this week.

All 501(c)(3) nonprofits, including churches, are prohibited from intervening in any election or engaging in partisan politicking, such as by supporting or opposing specific candidates. "The regulations ensure that 501(c)(3) groups do not abuse the public trust, since tax exemption is a privilege and a form of public subsidy," explains FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor.

Many electioneering complaints stem from pastors who purposely violate electioneering restrictions from the pulpit as part of "Pulpit Freedom Sunday," an annual event put on by the Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian Right group. ADF and their allies argue that religious groups should be given special treatment, and be allowed to engage in partisan activity while maintaining their tax-exempt status. Many pastors, at the urging of ADF, have sent videos of their lawbreaking sermons directly to the IRS, hoping to incite a legal challenge to rescind the 1954 law against politicking by 501(c)(3) churches. According to ADF, more than 1,700 pastors participated in Pulpit Freedom Sunday in October.

Ala. commission rescinds $3,000 faith grant to Baptist ministry

The Covington County Commission in Andalusia, Ala., voted unanimously Nov. 6 to rescind a $3,000 donation of taxpayer funds to the Covington Baptist Association for a men's ministry whose purpose was "to get more men to church."

The vote was in response to an Oct. 27 complaint letter from the Freedom From Religion Foundation protesting the flagrant constitutional violation.

Katherine Paige, FFRF legal fellow, sent the commission a second complaint letter Nov. 7 after learning that Commissioner Harold Elmore might ask to renew the grant to the ministry under the guise of funding building renovations.

Paige investigated property records and learned that Elmore was an incorporator of the Judson Baptist Church, which owns the building (sometimes referred to as the "Old Stanley School" or the "Stanley Community Center") and runs the ministry. Elmore serves as church deacon and is one of the Covington Baptist Association's four trustees.

"The commission cannot escape the grant's religious purpose and Commissioner Elmore's involvement raises serious ethical concerns under Alabama law," wrote Paige.

FFRF stands up for students’ right to omit “under God” from pledge

The Freedom From Religion Foundation yesterday sent a strong letter to the Tracy Unified School District (Calif.) censuring the punishment of two West High School students who omitted the words "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance.

Students in Shauna Baker's speech and debate class are charged with the responsibility of reading the daily announcements and the Pledge of Allegiance over the loudspeaker to everyone in the school as part of a graded assignment. Juniors Adrianna Teboe and Derek Giardina recently left out the words "under God" when it was their turn to recite the pledge.

Both students were marked down a grade for the omission, according to news reports. Giardina was reportedly given detention when he failed to include the phrase a second time, and Baker told him if he did not say the pledge properly, he would be suspended and kicked out of class.

"Students should not be singled out for exercising a conscientious objection to the words 'under God,' " wrote FFRF Legal Fellow Katherine Paige, pointing out that the phrase was only belatedly added to the previously secular pledge in the 1950s.

FFRF faults 7th Circuit timidity on clergy privilege case

Freedom From Religion Foundation Co-Presidents Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor, who learned today a three-judge panel of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals says they have no right to challenge the discriminatory "parsonage exemption," expressed disappointment that the court is unwilling to confront "this blatant preference for ministers and churches."

The panel, in a unanimous decision by Circuit Judge Joel Flaum, vacated a strong ruling a year ago by U.S. District Judge Barbara B. Crabb for the Western District of Wisconsin, declaring unconstitutional 26 U.S. C. § 107(2), passed by Congress in 1954.

The law allows "ministers of the gospel" paid through a housing allowance to exclude that allowance from taxable income. Ministers may, for instance, use the untaxed income to purchase a home, and, in a practice known as "double dipping," may then deduct interest paid on the mortgage and property taxes.

"It's important to note," said attorney Richard L. Bolton, who handled the litigation, "that the court's opinion in no way reflects that the housing allowance is constitutional." As Flaum himself noted, the court did "not reach the issue of the constitutionality of the parsonage exemption."
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FFRF sets aside a portion of the salaries for Barker and Gaylor as a "housing allowance," which, under the IRS code, the couple is not eligible to claim, as they are not "ministers of the gospel," but instead espouse atheism, freethought and secularism.

Gaylor and Barker took issue with the appeals court's cavalier assessment that they have suffered no concrete injury, since they must pay taxes on their housing allowance, while ministers are rewarded, simply for being religious leaders, with a unique and substantial tax benefit. The parish allowance is not a tax deduction but an exemption — housing allowances are subtracted from taxable income.

"We will continue to challenge this indefensible favoritism for religion in other forums until the issue cannot be circumvented," Barker said.

FFRF sues praying school board in Chino Valley, Calif.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation, a prominent national state/church watchdog, filed a federal lawsuit yesterday in the Central District of California, Eastern Division, against the Chino Valley Unified School District Board of Education, whose meetings "resemble a church service more than a school board meeting," FFRF contends.
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School board meetings open with a prayer, and often include bible readings and proselytizing by board members. Board President James Na injects Christianity into many of his official statements, FFRF's legal complaint notes. At one typical meeting, Na "urged everyone who does not know Jesus Christ to go and find Him," after which another board member closed with a reading of Psalm 143.

Students often attend the meetings to receive awards, speak about issues affecting their schools, attend disciplinary hearings and do performances. Student attendance is mandatory in some instances, and a student representative is a member of the board.
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The plaintiffs "feel that the government is taking sides against them on religious questions," and view the prayers, bible readings, and proselytizing as state-endorsed religion. The board is excessively entangled with religion, alleges the complaint, noting there is no secular or educational purpose for prayers, bible readings, or proselytizing. FFRF contends this violates the Establishment Clause, the Equal Protection Clause, and the California Constitution.

FFRF objects to Va. professor’s promotion of Islam in classroom

A Virginia professor's "Introduction to Islam" course crosses the line from objective religious teaching to proselytization, says the Freedom From Religion Foundation.

The national organization of atheists and agnostics, based in Madison, Wis., has more than 21,500 members, including 525 in Virginia. FFRF sent a letter last month asking Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA) in Annandale, Va., to investigate Professor Daoud Nassimi's class, which is described as an objective investigation of Islam "in its historical, religious, and political dimensions."

Instead, "this class has been used to proselytize students and advance belief in the existence of a god in an attempt to prove religious belief correct," wrote Staff Attorney Patrick Elliott and Legal Fellow Katherine Paige. An audio recording and PowerPoint slides from a lecture on the existence of god obtained by FFRF show that Nassimi's class is "a one-sided monologue by a government-paid employee whose agenda is to show the truth of religion – namely, the existence of a god."
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"The primary legal issue with this class is Prof. Nassimi's active promotion of his personal religious views. This is not a question of Prof. Nassimi's free speech – Prof. Nassimi is abusing his government position," wrote Elliott and Paige.

The letter concluded by asking NOVA to thoroughly investigate the class and, if the allegations are confirmed, to remove Nassimi from teaching the class. "Given his inability to separate his teaching duties from his religious sensibilities, we fail to see how he can conduct a collegiate course on Islam or religion," FFRF said.

FFRF urges IRS to investigate Noah’s Ark theme park

The Freedom From Religion Foundation yesterday sent a letter to the IRS asking it to investigate the tax exempt status of two nonprofits involved in operating and fundraising for the for-profit “Ark Encounter” theme park in Kentucky. The Noah’s ark-themed park, slated to open in 2016, will center on a full-scale ark built to biblical specifications.

Answers in Genesis (AiG) is a Christian fundamentalist group that advocates a literal interpretation of the bible, and owns the Creation Museum. Through a subsidiary nonprofit, it also owns Ark Encounter, a for-profit LLC, and has fundraised extensively for the park.

Donations to AiG, a nonprofit, are tax deductible, while donations directly to Ark Encounter, a for-profit company, would not be. But AiG fundraising materials include a space for donations to Ark Encounter, and note that donations are “tax deductible to the fullest extent allowed by law.” On the AiG website, donors have the option to designate contributions to Ark Encounter.

A separate Ark Encounter website also states that sponsorship is tax deductible.

Thus it appears that AiG is taking tax-deductible donations and directly giving them to Ark Encounter, LLC, noted FFRF Staff Attorney Patrick Elliott.
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“Answers in Genesis cannot have it both ways,” said FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. “Either the Ark Encounter is a religious enterprise and is eligible for tax-exempt donations, or AiG and Ark Encounter can be taken at their word that the park is purely a commercial enterprise.” In the latter case, then AiG is not “‘operated exclusively for religious, charitable, scientific’ or other exempt purposes,” as required for exempt status, and should lose its tax exemption, FFRF contends.